I’ve recently been setting up an OpenBSD 5.5 file server for some internal communications.

Setup went smoothly with authenticated samba users. They have a their own private home folder, as well as an internal directory to share between eachother. However, having the guest account enabled and a publicly accessible directory resulted in the following error when attempting to access it on the network:

smbd: Can't become connected user!

The solution was to add the following to the end of my configuration:

[ipc$]
    Ivalid users = nobody @smbusers

And for anyone wanting a similar setup, here is the smb.conf configuration. Remember to issue a smbpasswd -a username after you create the user’s unix account. You’ll also need to create a smbusers group and add each new user to that. Make sure you have the approproate permissions set on your shared directories.

[global]
    server string = Samba Server
    security = user
    valid users = @smbusers
    map to guest = Bad User
    guest account = nobody
    log file = /var/log/samba/smbd.%m
    max log size = 50
    load printers = No
    dns proxy = No
    idmap config * : backend = tdb
    valid users = @smbusers
    hosts allow = 192.168.1., 127.

[homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    browseable = no
    writable = yes

[staff]
    comment = Staff
    path = /home/samba
    public = no
    browseable =  yes
    writable = yes
    valid users = @smbusers

[public]
    comment = Public Share
    valid users = nobody @smbusers
    path = /home/public
    public = yes
    writable = yes
    printable = no
    browseable = yes
    guest ok = yes

[ipc$]
    valid users = nobody @smbusers